This Is a Powerful Political Moment That Most Americans Are Missing

The resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline goes on at the construction site, where a perilous ceasefire seems at the moment to be holding. But a real victory for the resistance came far from the construction site, at a farm in Wausau, Wisconsin.

The North Dakota Pipeline Co. resolved its lawsuit against James and Krista Botsford Tuesday. It agreed to pay $82,600 for the couple's attorney and release the easement on their land near Grand Forks, N.D. James Botsford feels vindicated. "This is a total victory," he said.

The issues in North Dakota now are about water rights, and ancient treaties, and ground sacred to the indigenous peoples of the prairie. But the Botsfords beat the pipeline company on the issue that has animated Jane Fleming Kleeb and a number of the farmers and ranchers who rallied together to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, the continent-spanning death funnel and conservative fetish object. The issue is how state governments hand their power of eminent domain over to private interests—like, say, pipeline companies.

The Botsfords were prepared to fight the lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court if it went that far. They refused to accept a deal with Enbridge Energy Co. to allow construction of the Sandpiper Pipeline through their land. The proposed 616-mile pipeline was slated to run from western North Dakota across Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge's subsidiary, North Dakota Pipeline Co., sued the Botsfords in late 2015 to use their land for the Sandpiper. The company claimed eminent domain, which was granted to it by the state of North Dakota. Eminent domain allows governments to take private property for public use, so long as the land owner is fairly compensated.

The Botsfords refused to be bought off. They refused to be bullied on the land or in the courts. And they walk away with $82,600 and their land remains untouched. This is a powerful political moment because, as Jane Kleeb relentlessly points out, both progressives and libertarian conservatives—to say nothing of small landowners—agree on the abuse of the eminent-domain power in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. City of New London.

This is in no way to minimize the concerns of the Native peoples who have thrown their bodies in front of the machines and the guard dogs. But, among us distant white-eyes, this is a big, honking deal.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Esquire participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.